Portable feed tape



April 21, 1964 CHEH T 3,129,814

PORTABLE FEED TAPE Filed Jan. 23, 1961 WFIGZ INVENTORS ERNEST L.CH EH CHARLES asmnrow W firmnwer United States Patent 3,129,814 PSRTABLE FEED TAPE Ernest L. Cheh, Norwalk, and Charles C. Stratton, South Norwalk, Conn, assignors to Burndy Corporation, a corporation of New York Filed Jan. 23, 1961, Ser. No. 84,301 1 Claim. (Cl. 206--56) This invention relates to a portable feed tape for storage, shipment, and/ or the transport of articles through a processing machine for further manipulation of the articles.

More particularly, the invention is directed to an electrical connector carrying tape for passage of the connectors through a crimping machine for mounting electrical connecting wires thereto, or for other purposes.

Objects of the present invention are to provide a lower unit cost for assembling the articles to the tape and for transporting the tape through the processing machine; to obtain a packing of the maximum number of articles per unit length of tape; to employ less complicated machine elements for processing the tape; to eliminate loose cut pieces of the tape when freeing the article from the tape after processing; to provide a tape and article support which lends itself to maximized automation; to provide a tape and article support which reduces handling variables; to provide a tape which affords maximum protection to the articles while on the tape and during proc essing; and to provide a tape construction which requires the least time to achieve maximum production.

These and other objects of our invention are accomplished and new results obtained as will be apparent from the device described in the following specification, particularly pointed out in the claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a connector supporting tape with several connectors mounted thereon;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged edge view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1, showing several connector supporting stations on the tape and includes the crimping machine;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged edge view taken along 33 of FIG. 1, showing a single connector supporting station with its connector in the crimping position; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a single connector supporting crimping station taken longitudinally of the crimped connector, in the plane 4-4 of FIG. 1.

We have found that the most satisfactory results can be achieved by use of a heat formed tape.

For example, a heat-formable material such as a cellulose acetate butyrate material is formed into a tape about .015 inch thick, that is, sufficiently flexible to permit winding on reels.

Pockets 12 are heat formed in the tape incorporating approximately one-half of the outline of the article 14 to be mounted thereon. The main tape may be pierced with feed cut-outs 16 and article clearance cut-outs 18. It is possible to crimp the connector directly through the thin feed tape.

A narrow holding strip 20 which may be of the same material as the tape can be heated and fused to the main tape 10 at points 22 located on a side of the supported article. The fused portion is further away from the connector on one side than on the other to provide a sloping cut-01f portion away from the connector. The strip is tightly wound over the article at a longitudinal point on the article not involved in the processing procedure.

The article 14 mounted on the tape is illustrated in one case as electrical pin contact comprising an extended contact pin 24 and an integral extended ferrule portion which is provided with a latching spring 26, a body portion 28, a shoulder portion 30 which acts as a stop for 3,129,814 Patented Apr. 21, 1964 ice the contact when it is inserted into a housing bore (not shown), a conductor receiving portion 32, and an insulation receiving portion 34. A socket contact comprising a socket portion 36, body portion 38, shoulder portion 40, latching spring 42, conductor receiving portion 44 and insulation receiving portion 46 is also shown.

The pocket 12, heat-formed into the tape 10, is shaped to the contour of the contact 14, i.e. with a contact pin recess 48, a spring recess 56, a body recess 52 and a shoulder recess 54.

The various recesses provide stops which prevent movement of the contact when it is positioned in the pocket. A clearance cut out 18, if employed, extends from one edge to provide clearance for the dies 56 and 58 which crimp the conductor receiving portion 32 and insulation receiving portion 34 to the inserted conductor 60, and insulation 62, respectively, of the wire 64, as is shown in FIG. 3. During the crimping operation, the shears 66 and 68 attached to the crimping dies and spaced therefrom, as is seen in FIG. 2 sever the holding strip 20 adjacent the fused section 22, to free the crimped-together contact 14 and wire 62, which may thereupon be ejected from the tape. The article is thus freed from the tape without allowing loose pieces of the strip to drop off into the machine. The severed holding strip is still attached to the tape at the fused positions 22 and is passed through the machine as a unitary section.

The .015 inch thickness of the tape and holding strip is sufiicient to provide adequate stiffness for intermittently advancing the tape without buckling, and for adequately supporting the articles through the crimping machine. The movement of the tape is accomplished by means of the feed cut outs 16 through which the tooth of a sprocket wheel, not shown, may project. The sprocket wheel is synchronized with the movement of the crimping dies to hold the tape stationary in the desired position during the crimping action.

The various recesses of the tape support the contact 14 at a horizontal level despite the variations in diameter at the diiferent sections of the contact. The axis of the contact is supported at the level of the upper surface 10a of the tape. The result is that the wire may be accurately fed into the wire receiving portions 32 and 34 at each positioning of the strip for crimping, and the contacts are accurately crimped at the desired position without movement with respect to the tape.

We have found that the tape of our invention combined with preferably a narrower holding strip which is heat fused in an area between the supported articles, enables us to capture and support more articles at minimum cost and with minimum spacing, thereby supporting more articles per given length of the tape. The articles held by our novel tape and holding strip may easily be removed from the tape. The holding strip itself may be severed without dividing the strip into loose parts. The article supporting tape is easily assembled, easily inserted into the crimping machine, and continuously removed therefrom. Relatively uncomplicated machines may be used with the novel tape and strip of the invention. The combination lends itself to automation with consequent savings in cost. The articles are adequately protected when the tape is wound into reels, and during transmission through the machines. unit cost than with other known methods.

We have thus described our invention, but we desire it understood that it is not confined to the particular forms or uses shown and described, the same being merely illustrative, and that the invention may be carried out in other ways without departing from the spirit of our invention, and, therefore, we claim broadly the right to employ all equivalent instrumentalities coming within the scope of the appended claim, and by means of which, objects of Production tests have demonstrated a lower our invention are attained and new results accomplished, as it is obvious that the particular embodiments herein shown and described are only some of the many that can be employed to attain these objects and accomplish these results.

We claim:

A tape assembly for storing and transporting articles through a machine for processing, which comprises: a flexible supporting tape having a plurality of article supporting portions, said portions being aligned parallel to one another; a plurality of elongate articles each disposed in one of said article supporting portions with the longitudinal axis of each at right angles to the longitudinal axis of said supporting tape; the edge of said tape at each said article supporting portion being cut out to permit one end of each article to extend free of said tape for processing; each said article supporting portion having a part thereof recessed below the surface of said tape to support the article therein supported with the longitudinal axis of said article lying substantially in the same plane as said tape and with a portion of said article projecting above the plane of the tape; means integral with the tape to cooperate with a feed mechanism on said machine; a holding strip extending the length of said tape and having a width less than the width of said tape and less than the length of said article; said strip being disposed over the projecting portion of each article and being fixedly secured to said tape intermediate said articles at points substantially spaced from one side of each to form a strip portion positioned for engagement by a shearing device operating substantially normally to the plane of said tape, whereby a shearing device may sever said strip to free said articles individually from said tape While retaining the severed portions of said strip secured to said tape.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,245,805 Schneider Nov. 6, 1917 1,263,218 Fischer Apr. 16, 1918 1,445,795 Parker Feb. 20, 1923 2,186,302 Martin Jan. 9, 1940 2,503,518 Slaughter Apr. 11, 1950 2,714,449 Holland Aug. 2, 1955 2,823,789 Henning Feb. 1, 1958 2,892,538 Middleton et al. June 30, 1959 2,984,347 Kalinchuk May 16, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 680,632 Great Britain Oct. 8, 1922 906,080 Germany Mar. 8, 1954 

